A Border Police officer was arrested Wednesday on suspicion of shooting dead a Palestinian teen at a Nakba Day protest outside Ramallah in May.
The suspect was detained by Israel Police and taken for an arraignment hearing, Army Radio reported.
Details of the police investigation into the shooting remained under a gag order, but a lead leaked to the press indicated that the probe found that the officer fired a live round, rather than a rubber bullet, as the IDF had claimed.
A police spokesperson couldn’t comment on the details of the case, but said that the investigation into the shooting was ongoing.
An autopsy performed by Palestinian and Israeli pathologists in June found that Nadeem Siam Nawara, 17, was shot and killed in May’s Nakba Day rally in Beitunia, near Ramallah, by live fire, most likely shot by the IDF.
Nawara, 17, was one of two Palestinian teens killed on May 15. The IDF, which maintained only nonlethal dispersal methods were used by troops against the demonstration, declined to comment on the findings at the time.
I had covered this extensively. I was convinced based on video from CNN, synchronized with the CCTV footage, that Nawara was shot by a rubber bullet. YNet indicates in its headline, but doesn't say explicitly in the article, that this arrest was for the Nawara shooting, and not the later shooting of Mohammed Salameh for which I don't have as much evidence.Some had mentioned that it was theoretically possible to shoot a live bullet through the attachment meant for rubber bullets, but the gunshot sound would be much different than that of a rubber bullet shooting that we seemed to hear on the CNN video. That scenario seemed to me less likely than the idea that Nawara was shot by a rubber bullet and then killed later. And I really dislike conspiracy theories.
I'm looking forward to seeing the details when they are released.
UPDATE: NRG says that the bullet that was recovered (possibly from Nawara's backpack, or from his body) matched the Border Police gun. (h/t Yenta P)